Random or dumped packing elements are normally employed in gas-liquid contact towers or columns to provide mass transfer surfaces between a downwardly passing liquid and an upwardly ascending gas or vapor. Random or dumped packing elements may be employed in a variety of chemical and treatment processes, such as rectification, stripping, scrubbing, fractionating, absorbing, separating, washing, extraction or other chemical and treatment-type processes. Generally, the random or dumped packing elements are dumped so as to provide for a random orientation in a vapor-liquid or liquid-liquid contact column. It is desirable that such random or dumped packing elements have a high mass transfer efficiency and good hydraulic capacity.
There are a wide variety of random or dumped packing elements which have been described and used in the prior art including, for example, cylinder-type random packings which have a plurality of slotted walls and internal tongues or projections. A non-arcuate-type tower packing element made of metal and having bulging strips with at least two humps in the strips is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,311,356, issued Mar. 28, 1967. Other types of random packing elements available include a saddle or arcuate-type random packing elements which are typically made of both plastic and ceramic-type materials, such as chemical stoneware and porcelain or as plastic materials like polypropylene, fluorocarbons, liquid crystal polymers and other moldable resins. Generally, saddle-type packings are arcuate in shape and are commercially available in sizes from about one-half inch to three inches. For example, saddle-type packings may comprise a ceramic material having generally thickened outer ridges and a thickened inner ridge and composed of solid material, while the plastic saddle-type random packings may be composed of a molded resin having an opening in the inner portion of the saddle and with the sides of the saddle serrated or having multiple drip points therein. Typically, the saddle-type elements compose an arcuate portion of a circle, such as generally a half to a third of a torus.
It is desirable to provide for an improved, saddle-type random packing element particularly a metal saddle for use in a gas-liquid contact tower, which saddle-type packing element has improved mass transfer efficiency and good hydraulic capacity.